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Star Blazers hits internet, DVD
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Star Blazers, the 1974 anime TV series (Space Battleship Yamoto) that featured the talents of Leiji "Cap'n Harlock" Matsumoto, will soon be seeing a new release on DVD format. In a press release last week, Voyager announced plans to bring the entire three-season series to DVD, utilizing new digital transfers for prestine video quality.
Due to minor editing in the American version, the DVD release will not be made bilingual. (It is currently unknown as to whether the original Japanese soundtracks even still exist in good condition.)
In a separate press release, Voyager announced with studioNEXT.com a partnership to make the first two episodes from all three seasons available on the studionext.com web site, at the rate of one episode per week for a period of six weeks. It is unknown what format the streaming video will be in, but will probably be in RealVideo.
Star Blazers is attracting a larger and larger internet following, and there are even calls to have it shown on television on cable. "There has been further interest to bring back Star Blazers to television," Barry Winston, president of Voyager Entertainment, Inc., said. "By exposing Star Blazers to the Internet, we hope to reach the thousands of dormant fans and reach new fans who are attracted to anime in general."
Star Blazers VHS boxed sets of all three seasons are still available in dubbed format, as well as the Farewell Yamato movie in subtitled format from AnimEigo and edited dubbed format from BEST Film and Video.
